NOTE: This post first appeared in the Roswell Daily Record….
It’s well established that if you give two authors the same writing prompt – write a retelling or reimagining of the Swan Princess fairytale – you’ll get two totally different stories. Even if the writers in question are mother and daughter! This month my daughter, also a published author, and I decided it would be fun to each write our own take on the fairytale and then put them together in a single volume, entitled The Swan Princess Reimagined: Two Stories of Love and Enchantment. I set mine in an already existing fantasy world where I’ve written before and featuring Mairi, a princess under a curse. She turns into a swan at unexpected moments, which is a serious problem since she’s betrothed to a neighboring, narrow minded noble whose previous two wives died under mysterious circumstances. Her parents need the fat bride price. After traveling to the Witch Queen’s castle for help, the princess meets Cade, a wolf shifter, who thinks he can teach her to control her changes. Romance and complications ensue in this novella. My daughter, Eli Donovan, also placed her story in an existing fantasy world of her own, and included elements from the story of the Swan Lake ballet in her influences.
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In Sorceror and the Swan Princess (A Villain’s Ever After) by Lucy Tempest, the afflicted FMC has been betrayed by her own twin sister, who hires a powerful sorcerer to change her into a swan. Twin sister gets the handsome prince and the swan princess is held prisoner in the sorceror’s castle and on his lake. This reimagining also draws on elements of the Swan Lake ballet and reviewers reveal all is not what it seems as the story progresses. I won’t do a spoiler but you can probably surmise from the subtitle of the book that the villain is going to have surprises to reveal as the book unwinds. AmazonKU
Author Laura Greenwood’s Grimm Academy series has retold many a fairytale and in Princess of Feathers: A Fairy Tale Retelling of the Wild Swans (Grimm Academy Book 16) sees the FMC tackling many challenges at once, from a princess competition, a romance, six brothers who need nettle shirts to break the curse that forces them to become swans and a vow of silence. Did I mention she’s under a curse too, which will see her death occur because of swans? Luckily the academy of the title exists to help victims of curses find a way to avoid their fate and survive to enjoy that Happy Ever After. Amazon Apple Books Kobo
Swan Lake (Timeless Fairy Tales Book 7) by K. M. Shea concentrates on the story of the ballet and makes her FMC a swan by day and a woman by night. The princess leads a band of smugglers in the dark hours. She tries to keep the sorcerer who cursed her from doing even more damage to her family or anyone else but then a prince comes to track down the smugglers. He falls in love with the princess of course but she’s terrified the sorcerer will find out about him. Then what she’s feared most happens, with her family threatened by the villain and she has to decide how to save them, the prince and herself. Reviewers state there’s a twist at the ending and also praise the development of the relationship between the swan and her prince. No instalove here. AmazonKU
Another interesting offering is Melanie Cellier’s A Captive of Wing and Feather: A Retelling of Swan Lake (Beyond the Four Kingdoms Book Five). The FMC has been taken from her home and is cursed to only be able to speak the language of swans during the day and although she can speak at night, she is forced by the curse to return to the lake and can speak only to the sorcerer who cursed her. She lives in a special haven and is regarded as a mute by the ladies there but she’s fairly happy despite her problems. Then a prince who’s been searching for her on behalf of her brother, shows up. They were childhood friends and he’s been determined to find her. He’s an archer and can be quite reckless but he figures out the curse and resolves to save the FMC. This story is a bit different in that the FMC never turns into a swan, which seemed to disappoint some reviewers but overall the story is well rated. AmazonKU AB
The Swindler and the Swan: Hades X Persephone (Shadows of Olympus Book 1) by J. A. Good takes a wildly different approach to the tale of a woman cursed to be a swan. In this version, the FMC is the daughter of the Greek goddess Demeter and has been cursed to remain in swan form. Hades, the god of the underworld, steals her away to annoy Demeter and imagine his surprise when the FMC becomes the beautiful Persephone as soon as she enters his kingdom. While she’s with him she’s freed of the curse. (Hades and Persephone retellings are another huge trope in Romancelandia so it was interesting to me to find the two stories combined.) Reviewers praised the character development for Persephone as the events occurred and the romance which evolves for Hade and his captive. Amazon AB
A more lighthearted take comes with Swan and the Bear (Furry United Coalition 2) from Eve Langlais. Our swan here is a curvy, Black computer geek, who happens to be the daughter of the Swan King. Her MMC is a bear shifter assigned to be her bodyguard and of course he falls in love with her. She’s promised to another and her father isn’t as nice a person as he might be but of course there’s an HEA ending after all is said and done.
I’ll finish with The Black Swan by Mercedes Lackey, who takes a new spin on the events of the Swan Lake ballet and puts all of the players through quite a bit of turmoil, travail and character development. A powerful sorcerer who lost his wife vows revenge on all women and turns his victims into swans who can only become their true selves in moonlight. His daughter Odile, the Black Swan of the title and the ballet, has the most growing as a person to do, although the prince (who starts here as a pretty unlikeable man) has to confront his own past deeds. Even Odette, the classic ballet’s heroine, has to accept some of her own flaws. Reviewers, many of whom professed their love for the ballet, were generally impressed by this retelling.
Of course there are other swan princess/swan lake/wild swan retellings and reimaginings out there but this is a good start. Happy reading!
VS: A book I didn’t have room for in the RDR column:
THE FACELESS WOMAN (THE OTHERWORLD BOOK THREE) by Emma Hamm
A town will only suffer the presence of a witch for as long as she is useful. Aisling watches the flames lick her thighs and prays for a quick death. But when an Unseelie prince appears through the smoke, she does what any self respecting witch would do. She curses him. Bran should never have traveled to the human realm, and is shocked when a witch binds them together. His life is hers and he refuses to die. He saves her from the fires, casts a hex on the townsfolk for good measure, then whisks her away to safety. His only stipulation? She has to remove the binding curse. Unfortunately for them both, she can’t. Witch and Unseelie must travel across the Otherworld to break the ties that bind them. Secrets and lies stand between them, but both will stop at nothing to save themselves. AmazonKU AB